Study: DRM a major barrier to e-textbook adoption

A study published by student public interest research groups calls for schools …

A study published this month by a coalition of student public interest research groups (PIRGs) has identified key problems with e-textbooks, and it calls for schools and publishers to adopt open content licenses, such as those offered by Creative Commons.

The report explains that the high cost of textbooks represents a significant financial burden for many students. Although digital textbooks have the potential to mitigate this problem, a survey conducted by the student PIRGs found that e-textbook services offered by mainstream publishing companies fail to provide a compelling alternative to conventional print books.

According to the study, a majority of electronic textbooks are encumbered with DRM that limits printing to 10 pages per session and imposes a 180-day expiration period. Despite the restrictions, the electronic textbooks don't cost significantly less than physical textbooks. In fact, the study found that the total cost is roughly the same in cases where students sell textbooks back to the school bookstore at the end of a semester.

Individual students spend between $700 and $1,000 annually on textbooks, the study says. Textbook prices continue to escalate and have already increased by over 300 percent in the last 20 years. Traditional market forces aren't bringing the prices down because students are a captive audience; professors pick books but don't buy them, and students have no choice of titles for classes. To reverse this trend, the student PIRGs advocate adoption of open textbooks that can be distributed free on the Internet under open content licenses.

Open licensing has a proven track record in the software industry where it has eroded deeply entrenched monopolies and redefined conventional economics. In the past ten years, open-source software has evolved from an idealistic dream into a pervasive trend and has seen strong adoption by virtually every company in the industry. Open licensing could be an equally formidable enabler in the conventional textbook market and could initiate a much-needed wave of price competition.

"Right now, publishers are on a crash course with e-textbooks. They are expensive and impractical for a large portion of the student population," the report says. "Open textbooks are the way to let digital textbooks live up to their potential as a solution to overwhelming textbook costs. They meet the needs of students as learners, while protecting their interest as consumers. We have known for a long time that digital textbooks could be a powerful solution, and this report finds that open textbooks are the best course to take."

Open textbooks are already beginning to emerge, but the concept must be embraced by schools before it will achieve critical mass. Over 1,500 professors have already committed to giving preferential treatment to open textbooks. The report calls for more schools to encourage similar commitments from their faculty members. Some open textbooks are already in wide use and are rapidly gaining a wide following. For instance, an open textbook about economics has been adopted by teachers at Caltech, Harvard, and other prominent universities.

The study briefly examines potential business models that some unconventional publishers are using to build real businesses on top of open textbook distribution. Flat World Knowledge, for instance, supplies the textbooks for free online and sells products like audiobooks, study aids, and downloadable supplementary content. This is similar to the model used by open-source software companies, which freely distribute open source software and make money by selling commercial support services.

Free distribution isn't the only lesson that open textbook advocates have learned from the open source software phenomenon. Open textbook providers are also turning to crowd-sourcing and community-driven authoring models. The Global Text Project, for instance, aims to produce Internet textbooks with a collaborative wiki.

Students are clearly desperate for some relief from outrageous textbook prices and some are even turning to piracy. Open textbooks offer a clear and legal solution for empowering education without untenable textbook costs. If the conventional textbook industry can't adapt, it could soon find itself irrelevant.